Gillian Ramsey Neugebauer offers a synthetic, teaching-oriented survey of life in the Hellenistic period, conventionally defined as the centuries between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE and that of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE. While Chaniotis has recently argued for a “long Hellenistic Age” extending under Roman rule until the death of Hadrian in 138 CE, Ramsey Neugebauer adopts the more traditional political framework, well suited to the aims of her book.[1] Rather than concentrating on great centers such as Alexandria or Pergamon, or on the deeds of political élites, Ramsey Neugebauer seeks to illuminate the full kaleidoscope of the era in its diversity and complexity. The work is directed especially at undergraduate and graduate students, as well as the general public with little to no prior knowledge, who wish to grasp the lived experience of ordinary people in the Hellenistic era.
The book is organized into fifteen chapters. The indispensable introduction begins by defining the term “Hellenistic” and situating the period within its conventional chronological boundaries (323–30 BCE). It then outlines the geography and history of the regions under discussion and situates the work within the broader context of social history. Particularly valuable is Ramsey Neugebauer’s analysis of the Hellenistic world as a polyglot society: while it is often framed as an era of Greek cultural diffusion following Alexander’s conquests, she highlights how other ethnicities, with their own histories and experiences, actively contributed to its formation. Her suggestions for further reading are certainly valuable, to which I would add Jeremy LaBuff’s work on the indigenous populations of the Hellenistic world, especially his superb Peoples of Anatolia (Leiden: Brill, 2022).
The following two chapters set the foundation for the entire book. Chapter 2 offers a Hellenistic primary-source review of exceptional value, equipping readers with the tools to navigate the patchwork of inscriptions, papyri, coins, archaeological remains, and literary accounts, while highlighting their contexts of production and encouraging critical engagement with this interconnected world. Chapter 3 (“Chronological Patterns”) argues that the Hellenistic political landscape was chronologically messy, crowded with shifting alliances across a vast geography, and that teleological narratives (e.g., “inevitably toward Rome”) or oversimplified Classical/Roman contrasts therefore misrepresent its open-ended contingencies. Instead, Ramsey Neugebauer proposes a thematic frame: endemic warfare; Alexander’s charismatic model shaping kingship and propaganda; the rise of primary and secondary successor states (alongside leagues, poleis, and Rhodes); foreign incursions (Celts, Parni/Parthians, Sakai); recurrent civil unrest (notably in Ptolemaic Egypt and the Maccabean revolt); and steadily deepening Roman involvement, including western interactions and Italian migration east. Through violence, displacement, taxation, and institutional instability, these élite-driven dynamics profoundly affected ordinary people, setting the backdrop for the social and cultural history that follows.
The thematic core of the book comprises chapters 4–15. It begins with a discussion of social standing in the Hellenistic world (chapter 4: “People and Status”), where Ramsey Neugebauer’s interdisciplinary approach is particularly effective. She emphasizes that the methodology of social history requires examining societies from the bottom up; indeed, studying the lives of low-status people is indispensable for understanding any period or culture. This leads into a nuanced treatment of the legal status and lived experiences of slaves. Rather than treating them as a uniform group, Ramsey Neugebauer distinguishes between enslaved captives, contractual slaves, house-born slaves, and privately owned versus public or institutional slaves, and she devotes a section to the complexities of emancipation. She then turns to rural inhabitants, or peasants (laoi), the largely invisible pawns of all status groups, long dismissed by ancient authors and, until recently, by modern historians. These were people without political rights or citizenship, whose marginalization was reinforced by practices of exclusion and racism dating back to the Archaic Greek colonization of the Mediterranean, while urban dwellers generally enjoyed a markedly higher standard of living.
Chapter 5 (“Making a Living”) offers an informative account of the professions occupied by ordinary people within the agricultural and food-supply economy. Drawing on papyrological and epigraphical evidence from Egypt, as well as the particularly detailed Delian temple accounts, Ramsey Neugebauer shows where everyday people worked, how they earned their livelihood, when and how they were paid, and how different sectors of the economy functioned. Of particular value is her section on “Temple Economies,” which compares the management of the sanctuary of Apollo on Delos with temple administration in Egypt. Chapter 6 (“Government & Administration”) examines the relationship between Hellenistic populations and their states, focusing on citizenship, the variety of political communities, systems of taxation and tax collection, economic regulations, and the workings of law and order, including courts, crime, and punishment.
The remaining chapters turn to life in the private sphere and local community. In contrast to traditional textbooks that lump women and family together in a superficial, often uncritical treatment of daily life, Ramsey Neugebauer broadens the scope to encompass many dimensions of human experience. She first surveys the spectrum of licit and illicit sexual relationships within their social contexts, while also addressing areas where gender difference shaped status, political rights, and opportunities. Hellenistic sexuality is presented in all its complexity—marriage, birth and childhood, coming-of-age rituals, old age, concubinage, same-sex relationships, prostitution, celibacy, contraception, and even how people imagined and discussed sex—through a careful reading of primary sources, from documentary papyri to Herodas’ delightful Mimes. Ramsey Neugebauer’s account of daily life also includes eating and drinking, food security, the kinds of foodstuffs consumed, as well as housing, furniture, and neighborhoods. To this already highly informative and absorbing discussion, the integration of findings from forensic anthropology, particularly concerning famine and nutritional adequacy, might have added an additional layer of depth.
A discussion of “Art & Adornment” (chapter 9) offers a vivid glimpse of what the Hellenistic world and its inhabitants looked like. Ramsey Neugebauer demonstrates a strong command of regional fashions, tracing influences from Near Eastern cultures of Mesopotamia through the Hellenistic period. We learn how people dressed, the jewelry they wore, the cosmetics they applied, their hairstyles, perfumes, and even their tattoos. In turning to art, Ramsey Neugebauer avoids simply rehearsing the familiar canon of great Hellenistic works and instead explores art as it intersected with the daily lives of ordinary people: the garlands they wore, the paintings they created, the figurines that filled their homes, the appearance of their statues, and how individuals related to these objects within their social contexts, as well as how they themselves functioned and presented their identities in public spaces and communal occasions. In such a kaleidoscope, it is only fitting that she presents a vibrant color palette rather than the cold, idealized whiteness so long associated with marble sculpture.
Next, Ramsey Neugebauer tackles education, beginning with the spread of Greek as the lingua franca across a mosaic of distinct cultures and languages. She then moves through primary, citizen, occupational, and higher education. For primary schooling, the curriculum is reconstructed from the alphabet to the study of texts, most notably Homer, but also Euripides, Hesiod, and Theognis, although the modern concept of a “textbook” did not exist due to cost. After primary education, students could pursue higher learning in rhetoric and philosophy, which later branched into disciplines such as astronomy, physics, biology, anthropology, ethics, literary theory, and logic. Many of these scholars became the Hellenistic equivalent of the homo universalis, adept in multiple fields. Higher education functioned through apprenticeship: eager students followed their masters at public lectures and participated in teaching discussions. Knowledge circulated in this characteristically Hellenistic fashion, blending formality with fluid, personal transmission.
Writing about leisure and entertainment in the Hellenistic world is essential because these activities reveal far more than simple diversions. In her eleventh chapter, Ramsey Neugebauer highlights the complexities of leisure beyond mere frivolity, showing how it shaped community identity and fostered cultural exchange in a diverse, interconnected age. Children’s toys and games, along with board games with deep historical roots, are presented alongside adult pastimes such as gambling, athletics, feasts, festivals, music, dance, and dramatic performances. These practices are explored from the perspective of participants and audiences alike, exemplified in Theocritus’s Idyll 15, where Praxinoa and Gorgo, Alexandrian women accompanied by their maidservants, attend the Adoneia at the royal palace. Such spectacles, beyond their function as trivial amusements, also served as stages for cross-cultural encounters and negotiations, reflecting the broader dynamics of identity and community across the Hellenistic world.
The chapter on religious life in the Hellenistic world examines cult practices, sanctuaries, priesthoods, and, above all, the dynamics of cross-cultural worship in mixed communities. Ramsey Neugebauer emphasizes that religion permeated all aspects of daily life, so even ordinary activities carried religious dimensions. She highlights the wide variations in worship: festivals dedicated to the same deity could differ greatly from one region to another, just as priesthoods operated under diverse sets of local rules. Rejecting the view of some scholars who see Hellenistic religion as a break from tradition marked by experimentation, rational philosophy, or attraction to exotic cults, Ramsey Neugebauer argues instead for continuity alongside change. She also draws a distinction between public and private worship, stressing the dual role of individuals as members of both community and household. Finally, she discusses the proliferation of rituals and ritual associations that flourished during this period, underscoring the vitality and adaptability of Hellenistic religion.
In her chapter on health in the Hellenistic world, Ramsey Neugebauer applies social history approaches to explore how medical practices and ideas of well-being were shaped by cultural context. As was characteristic of the era as a whole, concepts of health and disease varied widely across regions and communities. With medical knowledge spreading beyond élite circles and across borders, individuals could seek care from multiple sources: local communities, divine intervention, public physicians, or private doctors. This diversity of options underscores the interconnected nature of Hellenistic society and the many ways in which people navigated questions of health and healing.
The final two chapters of the book address technology and travel. Ramsey Neugebauer examines the material culture of devices, tools, and fabrication processes, ranging from mills and presses to water-lifting systems, irrigation, construction, timekeeping instruments such as clocks and sundials, and chemical processes like dyeing, tanning, glassmaking, and smithing. She raises questions of skilled labor and supply chains in order to reconstruct the long histories behind Hellenistic crafts and to assess the scope of their innovation. Her discussion of travel extends from personal journeys and expeditions, so characteristic of the world after Alexander the Great, to colonization, migration, work-related travel, religious pilgrimages, and tourism. She pays close attention to the practicalities of movement, including restrictions, identification, roads, waterways, and costs. Scholars have often described the Hellenistic age as a period of openness to the wider world beyond the Mediterranean, a view Ramsey Neugebauer shares, while emphasizing that it is the concrete details of travel and resettlement that bring Hellenistic culture and society vividly to life.
If I have one small complaint, it is that the book is densely printed on paper of mediocre quality, with too few, and only in black and white, images. These production issues, however, do not detract from the author’s achievement. Ramsey Neugebauer demonstrates remarkable erudition and a deep command of the primary sources, which she uses to foreground ordinary people, material practices, and institutional contexts. The pedagogical features of the book are exemplary: it offers a coherent, theme-by-theme portrait of Hellenistic societies in all their complexities, presented in clear prose with a reader-friendly design well-suited for both undergraduate and graduate survey courses. Abundant references and case studies anchor concepts in specific locales across the Hellenistic world. As such, the book is invaluable not only as a student-friendly complement to political and military narratives, but also as a reliable introduction for scholars seeking to engage with the fundamental themes of Hellenistic society. Ramsey Neugebauer’s book will doubtless become a standard reference for teaching the social and cultural history of the Hellenistic world.
Notes
[1] Angelos Chaniotis, Age of Conquests. The Greek World from Alexander to Hadrian. Cambridge, Mass. 2018.